Millikin Men’s and Women’s golf seasons are coming to an end soon as they prepare for the last tournament of the season.
This season has been successful with both teams competing and placing extremely well throughout.
The team is fortunate to have Millikin’s longest tenured head coach in Sam Osborne.
Osborne took a different route of joining Millikin as he was not just a coach but also a player for the Big Blue.
“I graduated in 2010 and pretty much coached right after, I was just the assistant coach that 2010-2011 season, then got promoted after that. It was definitely a unique situation. I was 23 years old coaching the players I had just been teammates with,” he said.
Coach Osborne becoming head coach was an ideal situation not just for him, but for Millikin as they were able to hire a true golf coach who had years of experience in the sport.
“In Division III a lot of times coaches aren’t actually golfers. A lot of times in secondary duty for a lot of sports, or its a part time position for people working full time selling insurance. So my coach was the offensive coordinator for the football team, he was a good coach but he didn’t know the game a lot. That gap year, he got the head coach job and that opened the door for the head coach position,” Osborne said.
Since Osborne has taken over as the head coach, he has created pivotal teams that have helped grow the sport and reshape the program at Millikin with his own special touch.
“I wanted to add more structure to the golf program, slowly but surely we were able to get that done the first couple years and I think it’s safe to say we have a lot more structure in a program which benefits our players,” Osborne said.
The process of Osborne being at Millikin has been a whirlwind experience for him, from first choosing Millikin and then choosing to stay.
“Well, I’m from Decatur. All my things and people are here, Millikin is one of the schools that recruited me out of high school and I knew I wanted to play competitive golf and be a college golfer,” he said. “It was definitely more of a gut feeling to stay, I had plans to go to graduate school, but I got offered the men’s job.”
Coach Osborne is not only loved by Millikin as a whole, but he’s loved by his players.
“It’s nice having him, especially on the golf course. He’s really smart, he’s good at giving me confidence, and he’s never upset if we’re not playing well,” sophomore Trevor Biggerstaff said.
Osborne works hard to make sure his team stays locked and ready for match day which requires the team to be in tip top training.
“It’s a super hard game. It just takes a lot of practice, so we use all the hours we can that we are allowed to use during the week when it comes to practice and that’s about 20 hours a week. And the best ones will do more than that,” Osborne said.
But when it comes to each player’s successes on the day, Osborne has a different way in approaching some of the players.
“Every player when it comes to coaching out there is different. There are some players I want to see more and some I will just make sure have water and snacks,” he said.
Millikin has been able to have quite the successful season so far this year on both teams. The women’s team has been very good having placed 3rd twice this season and grabbing 5th in the CCIW tournament. But with the next big competition Osborne is positive the women can win it all this year, despite the struggles the team has faced in previous years.
“The women’s team hasn’t been the best the last couple years due to the pandemic and not getting enough talent and depth of talent on the team from a roster standpoint, but this one of the better teams we’ve had since I started coaching,” Osborne said. “We have a couple girls that can compete with some of the better girls in the conference and we have 4 girls who can break 90 which is really good.”
The men’s team has also played at an elite level, grabbing two first-place finishes this season, and not only the placements but the team itself have broken some Millikin records.
At the Highland Classic, Millikin broke the school record for Team Low Round of 19-under par 269. Individually, Biggerstaff set the tournament record, school record, and course record 9-under 63.
“I think it’s cool to have the team record and individual record. In the match I got the record there were two guys who were only one behind me, so it was cool having both records,” Biggerstaff said.
Both teams look forward to competing in the Golfweek October Classic, which is a huge accomplishment to both teams.
“Golfweek October Classic is one of the best tournaments in Division III, and we got invited because of the success we had last year and that will be some of the best teams in the conference,” Osborne said.
The event will host the best competition the Big Blue will have to face so far this season, but the team believes that they are ready and prepared to compete.
“I mean they are all top 5, top 10, and top 25 teams in the conference and I feel we are right there on par with them. We just need to be more consistent and need our guys to play well at the same time. But they were pumped and ready to show their skills,” Osborne said.
With the season coming to an end the team is ready to finish off this year on a high note, and Osborne plans to leave his mark for the Big Blue.
“I’m also someone who is die hard Millikin, as I was a student here 15 years ago, I’m just someone who bleeds blue for the good of the school. I want to make sure as a team we always represent Millikin well and that’s on the course in the school and in the community,” said Osborne.
